Overview

Some mothers don't raise daughters-they remake them ""What if this time I die?""-Jocelyn dreads her birthdays. Each odd-numbered year, on the eve of her birthday, she struggles to breathe-as if something inside her is being taken away. Her mother, Idris, insists it's a flaw in Jocelyn herself. But Idris has a secret. A self-taught sorceress obsessed with perfection, she uses magic to remove Jocelyn's ""undesirable"" moods -anger, sadness, defiance-essential parts of her very spirit-and traps them in balloons, determined to raise a flawless child. Over time, as Jocelyn's essential spirits are removed-those qualities that make her who she really is-she becomes a pale shadow of her true self. Inside a house ruled by rigid expectations, strange rules, and a mother who calls control ""love,"" Jocelyn must navigate fear, isolation, and the growing sense that something is deeply wrong. And, as Jocelyn approaches her thirteenth birthday, she must decide: Will she surrender to her mother's control-or reclaim the parts of herself that were taken?

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9781972561065

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